Oregon | Sandy & Mt. Hood
The Pacific Northwest — filled with nature, great people and chill vibes, it’s a place I used to call home. Though I wasn’t visiting Seattle this time around, I had the privilege of doing something even better; celebrating my best friend Joseph’s 25th birthday in Oregon! Nothing like taking some PTO to have a cabin weekend and go snowboarding in good company.
SANDY
Coast to coast, my friend Anjani and I started the trip with an evening flight from New York to Portland. We stayed in Portland that night/the following day as we we wrapped up our short work weeks and waited for the rest of Joseph’s friends to come rolling in from out of town. Once all was said and done, we packed up a bunch of cars and headed out to our Airbnb cabin in Sandy, Oregon.
Sandy is a 45 minute drive from Portland, making for a quick and easy road trip. We had all been up since 6AM though so we did make a pit stop at Dutch Bros. for coffee and energy drinks — then we were really ready and on our way! The cabin ended up being at the end of a dirt path tucked behind the main road; you can only drive 5mph as you enter the area. It almost felt like we were off-roading to get down there, especially being in Joseph’s Jeep. Our jaws dropped when we finally did pull up to the cabin…it was better than we could have ever imagined!
Airbnb in Sandy, Oregon
Welcoming guests with a large front yard, the cabin accommodated for about 20 people and 6-7 cars. The inside of the home was spacious with open seating areas in the living room, dining room and kitchen! There were two true bedrooms downstairs and one master upstairs, but the Airbnb hosts were remarkably creative with making more space for guests. The walk-in closet in the master bedroom was repurposed into a bunkbed room, and the garage was converted into a ‘guest house’ equipped with three full-size beds, a large L-shaped couch and even shuffleboard! The best part of the cabin by far though was the backyard.
As pictured, the backyard was wide open with room for a dining deck, hot tub, fire pit area and grassy lawn for the boys to play beer die. The property was parallel to a running creek so there was also a pathway to walk down to the water. There was truly something for everybody.
Throughout the duration of our four-day stay, we cooked group meals, played games, had little dance parties and all just got to chat and spend quality time with each other. Something so cool about growing up is being able to bring together different groups of friends from all walks of life. It was incredible to meet Joseph’s college and post-grad friends — we all meshed together so well and everyone was comfortable straight off the bat. That’s no surprise though as I know Joseph only keeps around the best of the best for friends.
For daily activities, the group was mixed between those who were skiing/snowboarding and those who were not. Being that this might have been my only chance to snowboard this season, I jumped at the opportunity to buy a lift ticket and spend two days at Mt. Hood Meadows.
MT. HOOD MEADOWS
This was my first time snowboarding in the state of Oregon! Luckily I was welcomed with beautiful weather and a fun group to show me around the mountain. We caravanned from the cabin to the main parking lot (I think it was about 6 of our cars in a row) and arrived about an hour before the lifts opened. Joseph has a season pass, and with that, is very well-versed in timing the day just right. He had an entire set up to cook eggs and bacon — it felt like a tailgate with our group playing music in the parking lot and enjoying breakfast sandwiches before putting on our gear and heading for the lifts.
It wasn’t very crowded either of the two days we went, so we were able to get in tons of runs given the short lift lines. We started as a group of 12, but naturally dwindled down into smaller groups throughout the day. It was fun to rotate sitting with different friends on the lifts, always all meeting at the top to snowboard down together. Conditions were great in some areas and icy in others, but overall it was a perfect blue bird weekend!
Traveling has been scarce the last few years because of the pandemic — I’m grateful I’ve been able to take quite a few trips. This one was particularly special as it was centered around friendship and celebration. I’m already missing the weekend, the mountain and the new friends I’ve made (thanks to Joseph!). What a perfect way to kick off 2022. Here’s to what’s next: Panama City, Panama!
